Double Olympic champion and former world record holder Rebecca Adlington announced her retirement from competitive swimming on this day in 2013.
Adlington, a two-time winner at the 2008 Beijing Games, called time on her career six months after she had won two bronze medals at her home Olympics in London.
“I love swimming but as a competitive element and elite athlete I won’t compete any more,” she said.
“I have achieved everything I wanted to. Some people want to milk it all they can. I’ve always said I wanted to finish on a high, despite my love of the sport.”
Aged only 23, Adlington went on to end the year by appearing in ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!’ before becoming a regular pundit for the BBC.
It was the 2008 Olympics where the Mansfield-born swimmer came to prominence with a record-breaking Games.
Adlington won both the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle in Beijing to become Britain’s first Olympic swimming champion since 1988.
The teenager’s winning time of 8:14.10 in the 800-metre final broke American Janet Evans’ 19-year record, while her double gold-medal haul made her the first British swimmer to achieve that feat in 100 years.
More medals would be won at the 2009 World Championships in Rome with Adlington claiming two bronzes before she clinched the 400-metre freestyle title at the European Championships in Budapest the following year.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi she repeated her Olympic double with golds in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle events.
More gold-medal success was achieved in the 800m freestyle at the World Championships in 2011 – she won silver in the 400m – and Adlington finished third in both events at her home Olympics in London before she retired from the sport.
Dylan Carter headlines T&T's team to World Short Course Championships
Trinidad and Tobago’s ace swimmer Dylan Carter headlines a three-member team that will represent the Twin Island Republic at the World Aquatics World Short Course (25m) Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The six-day event, scheduled for December 10–15, promises exciting prospects for aquatics enthusiasts as it will feature morning heats and evening semi-finals and finals.
Carter will enter the championship in rich form following his fairly successful World Aquatics Swimming World Cup outing recently, where he pocketed two gold medals and one bronze during the three-leg competition.
The decorated 28-year-old, who is a many-time World Short Course medallist and Olympian, is scheduled to swim the men’s 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, and 50m butterfly.
He will be joined by rising sensation Nikoli Blackman, who is currently in his sophomore year at the University of Tennessee. Blackman, a talented and versatile swimmer, will only contest the men’s 200m freestyle event.
Meanwhile, Zuri Ferguson, who paraded her skills at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, is the lone female member of the team. The University of Florida freshman will be targeting at least best times in the women’s 50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke events.
Another female swimmer, Ornella Walker, who recently shattered Trinidad and Tobago’s 50m and 100m backstroke records, also qualified to make the team but opted not to take up her spot on this occasion.
T&T's Dylan Carter cops gold in men's 50m freestyle at Swimming World Cup
Trinidad and Tobago’s ace swimmer Dylan Carter secured his second gold of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup Series as he produced a breathtaking performance to land win the men’s 50-metre freestyle in Singapore on Thursday.
Carter, a three-time Olympian, won the event in a brisk 20.82 seconds and left the field in his wake as he was the only swimmer under the 21-second barrier in the final. He won ahead of Australia’s Isaac Cooper (21.01s) and Germany’s Marius Kusch (21.04s).
The 28-year-old Carter is expected to line up in the heats of the men’s 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle on Thursday’s evening session before bringing the curtains down on his campaign in the men’s 50m butterfly on Friday.
Samuda empathizes with Comm Games Federation over scaled-down 2026 event; urges possible compensation for excluded sports
Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president, Christopher Samuda, has expressed understanding and empathy toward the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) as they face the challenge of hosting a scaled-down version of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
With the event, traditionally a grand celebration of sport, culture, and unity, being reduced in size due to economic pressures, Samuda acknowledges the difficulties facing the CGF while also stressing the need to find ways to address the impact this decision will have on several sports that have been cut from the programme.
Diving, rugby, squash, badminton, table tennis, hockey, triathlon, and cricket are among the sports that will not feature in the 2026 edition.
The CGF initially struggled to find a host after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year, before Glasgow, known for its rich sporting history as a host city—including hosting the 2014 edition of the game—stepped in to save the 2026 Games. However, this comes with the reality of hosting a more compact edition than previous iterations.
For Samuda, the situation is an unfortunate but understandable outcome in a global landscape.
“The circumstances in which the Commonwealth Games Federation unavoidably found itself inevitably led to a scaled-down edition of the games. I regret the exclusion of badminton, table tennis, squash, and hockey; for those sports, the Jamaica Olympic Association has earmarked for real transitioning. The CGF’s decision was clearly influenced by commercial factors and the economy of a diminished sporting agenda, for at the end of the day, the games must be viable to ensure sustainability,” Samuda said.
However, Samuda also noted that the decision to reduce the scope of the Games, which will see several sports omitted from the 2026 programme, raises important questions about the future of those disciplines within the Commonwealth sporting family.
He argued that the CGF must find ways to compensate the sports that have been excluded, as they are integral to the diversity and spirit of the Commonwealth Games.
“Going forward, however, the CGF has to develop a strategy that will compensate those sports that are being excluded so as not to lose the interest and confidence of their international federations, commercial partners, and most importantly, the players and athletes for whom sports exist,” he reasoned.
Despite the current challenges, Samuda remains optimistic about the future of the Commonwealth Games and the role it plays in uniting nations through sport. He sees the 2026 edition in Glasgow as an opportunity to innovate and adapt, ensuring that the Games remain relevant in a changing world.
The Games will feature a 10-sport programme across four venues within an eight-mile corridor, with more than 500,000 tickets made available for spectators.
Athletics and swimming are included as compulsory sports for 2026, while there will also be track cycling, gymnastics, netball, weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowls, and 3x3 basketball.
“It is critical that the next games, while being an economic reinvention, should retain that unique traditional value that has given many sports and invaluable space on the Commonwealth sporting agenda and which have made it competitive as a sporting and commercial product amidst growing competition for the partnership dollar and public viewership and appeal,” Samuda said.
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